This disclosure relates to communications systems and, more particularly, to a method and a system for completing sequencing calls.
Call sequencing is a communications service feature that has been available to communications service subscribers over the last few years. In essence, call sequencing allows subscribers to establish a sequence of subscriber-selected destination telephone numbers at which such subscribers can be reached. In actual implementation of the call sequencing feature, a call destined for a call sequencing subscriber is successively directed to different pre-selected destination telephone numbers in the sequence until either the subscriber is reached, or all the destination telephone numbers listed in the sequence have been exhausted. Such a call is hereinafter referred to as a xe2x80x9csequencing callxe2x80x9d. Usually, call sequencing subscribers elect to include in the sequence certain destination numbers such as their office telephone number, their wireless telephone number and their home telephone number, to name a few. Ordinarily, those different telephone numbers are stored in a communications carrier""s database for retrieval in the order or sequence pre-selected by the subscriber. Typically, the communications carrier will provide the call sequencing subscriber with a database-queried telephone number, such as an xe2x80x9c800xe2x80x9d number. When a caller dials the 800 number, the communications system, upon receiving such number, translates it to a first destination number in the sequence to which the sequencing call is initially completed. When the subscriber cannot be reached at the first telephone number in the sequence due to conditions such as a ring-no-answer or a busy-line condition, the communications system automatically initiates a call to the second telephone number in the sequence. This process continues until either a call supervision tone is received by the communications system (e.g., the call is answered) or all the destination numbers listed in the sequence have been exhausted. The last destination number in the sequence is usually associated with an end-user device that is coupled to the subscriber""s voice mail system that is designed to receive and store any message that a caller may wish to leave for the subscriber.
In all too many situations, however, the communications system fails to proceed with the sequential flow of completing calls to the destination numbers in the sequence. Interruption in the sequential flow occurs, for example, when a call answering device or voice messaging system is coupled to a telephone set associated with one of the destination numbers in the sequence, and such number is not the last destination number in the sequence. In such instance, the answering device delivers an announcement to the caller thereby transmitting the answer supervision signalxe2x80x94indicative of a call completionxe2x80x94to the communications system. In response to receiving the answer supervision signal from the voice mail system, such as an answering machine, the communications system stops the process of dialing any remaining number(s) in the sequence. As a result, the sequencing subscriber who is available to answer a call directed at any of the remaining telephone numbers listed in the sequence, is denied an opportunity to communicate immediately with the caller.
Another situation, in which the sequencing process is prematurely terminated, occurs when the communications system completes a call to a destination number other than the last destination number in the sequence and somebody other than the sequencing subscriber answers the call destined for a call-sequencing subscriber. Thus, a problem of the prior art is the premature termination of the sequencing process before a subscriber has an opportunity to answer a sequencing call.
The present disclosure is directed to a communications system that is designed a) to ascertain whether a sequencing subscriber is available to answer a sequencing call at a destination number in the sequence, and in response to receiving a signal indicative of the unavailability of such subscriber b) to forward the sequencing call to the next destination number in the sequence, and c) to continue forwarding the call to the next destination number in the sequence until the called party is reached or all the destination numbers in the sequence have been exhausted.
In a first embodiment of the principles disclosed herein, an announcement prompts a called party to provide affirmative information indicative of whether such called party is the sequencing subscriber for whom a sequencing call is destined. When the communications system receives no such information from the sequencing subscriber, the communications system proceeds to forward the call to the next phone number in the sequence while delivering the same prompting announcement. This process continues until either information indicative of the sequencing subscriber""s availability is received, or all the phone numbers in the sequence have been exhausted.
In a second embodiment of the principles disclosed herein, a communications carrier""s terminating switch is arranged to disable for a sequencing call any voice mail feature that may be associated with a telephone number to which the terminating switch completes a call. This may be accomplished, for example, by the terminating switch transmitting an in-band or out-of-band signal to a device connected to the telephone set to which the call is completed. The in-band or out-of-band signal mayxe2x80x94in addition to temporarily disabling the voice mail featurexe2x80x94indicate, for example, that the call is destined for a particular sequencing subscriber, and no other person but the subscriber should answer the call. If the terminating switch does not receive an answer supervision signal indicative of the availability of the called party, the communications system then forwards the call to the next phone number in the sequence while repeating the process of disabling the voice mail feature, if appropriate. The call forwarding process and the voice mail disabling process continue until the called party is reached or the last number in the sequence remains to be dialed. For the last number in the sequence, the terminating switch refrains from transmitting any voice mail disabling signal, thereby allowing any voice messaging system or device to present to the caller a greeting message inviting the caller to leave a message for the sequencing subscriber. Advantageously, by preventing the different calls in the sequence from being completed, the second embodiment allows the caller or sequencing subscriber to avoid the costs associated with the different calls.